London, April 24: Deutsche Bank in London has confirmed it has "disciplined or dismissed individuals" allegedly involved in illegally manipulating the inter-banking lending rate known as Libor but will not say whether one of them is managing director Shivani Mathur, a high flying banker from Calcutta.

Shivani, who has made quite a splash on the London scene, has been described as a "trader by day, painter by night" after successfully combining her career as a banker with her activities as an artist.

But she has been named by a number of newspapers today as one of those whose head has been sought - and offered - by Deutsche Bank as a way of settling up with the US regulatory authorities.

The New York Department of Financial Services had taken the unusual step of ordering Deutsche to dismiss seven employees, including six in London, who are still employed by the bank despite evidence of failings going back eight years, The Times, London, reported.

The employees in London apparently include "an unnamed managing director, four directors and one vice-president".

Those in the firing line have been identified by banking sources as "Gary-Allen Brown, Shivani Mathur, Gavin Black, Yves Paturel, Thierry Barbieux, and Matthiew Billet in London, plus Anne-Eva Thomas, in Frankfurt".

Shivani, a managing director with the bank, has so far not taken up an offer from The Telegraph to present her side of the story but her reputation is certainly being traduced by British papers.

There is a suggestion from City analysts that people such as Shivani are being sacrificed to save the people at the top of the bank.

Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay a fine of $2.5billion over the Libor scandal.

There is a great deal of interest in Shivani, whose website says she was born in Calcutta.

The Times, London, said that "of at least 29 Deutsche employees involved in the scandal, 12 have been dismissed and another 10 disciplined by being reassigned, retrained or having bonuses clawed back".

It added that $2.5bilion fine "is the biggest for the rigging of Libor and Euribor, dwarfing the $1.5 billion meted out to UBS, the Swiss bank, and the £290 million paid by Barclays, which was the first bank to settle over similar offences in 2012".

It is not entirely clear whether Shivani has left the employ of Deutsche Bank.

The Financial Times reported: "The Calcutta-born Deutsche Bank MD in London is one of seven employees who came to the attention of the New York Department of Financial Services over alleged misconduct but who remain employed by the bank. Mathur... could not be reached for comment on Thursday."

In a mea culpa, Deutsche has put out a long statement, confirming that it "agrees to joint settlement of all remaining investigations with US and UK regulators over interbank offered rates benchmarks".

"Deutsche Bank has reached a joint settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) in the US and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK as part of an industry-wide investigation into past submissions for interbank offered rates benchmarks," it said.

"Deutsche Bank agreed to pay penalties of $2.175 billion to the DOJ, CFTC and NYDFS and £226.8 million to the FCA," it went on.

It said: "The bank has disciplined or dismissed individuals involved in the trader misconduct...."

It made a significant point: "No current or former member of the management board was found to have been involved in or aware of the trader misconduct."

City AM, a financial free paper, put the story in simpler terms: "Deutsche Bank was ordered to fire another seven staff yesterday for manipulating Libor submissions between 2005 and 2010 - but no top bosses have resigned over the scandal. The $2.5bn (£1.7bn) fine is far bigger than any previously levied on other banks, in part because Deutsche's staff misled regulators and tried to cover up the offences. However, the German lender is adamant there is no link between the misbehaviour and senior bosses." It said: "Co-chief executives Jurgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain came under fire for failing to take any responsibility."

It quoted Mark Taylor from Warwick Business School: "It was not just a few bad traders who got out of hand one day, it is a more deep-seated cultural problem. It is important for the City that someone senior takes responsibility. If nobody resigns then it feels like business as usual."

On Shivani's website, there is a glowing account of her life by a friend, Deepali Nangia: "Having grown up in Calcutta with culture and creativity all around us, art has always been very close to my heart. I have always been a big fan and keen supporter of the Bengali artists attending as many art shows in London when I can. Little did I know when I met the artist Shivani Mathur that she was born in Calcutta (although not a Bengali) and I didn't even need to go as far as Mayfair to see her splendid works; she lived a stone's throw from me."

"In one phrase - Shivani Mathur is a trader by day and a painter by night," Nangia says. "Shivani's first recollection of herself painting was around the age of five. While she never had any formal training in the arts, creativity was both in her blood and in her upbringing... Shivani learned art privately with teachers, but ultimately doing an MBA in finance in Mumbai. She moved to London with Deutsche bank in 1997 and has since done a few courses in drawing - live, charcoal and pencil."

There is more in this vein: "As I walked into Shivani's flat I could smell art around me. Small, medium and large canvases covered the walls and many were on the floor against the wall. Shivani paints around a few themes - mathematics, the role of women in society (for anyone who knows the trading industry they will know how male dominated it is) and her love for colours, which bring her paintings to life. She gave me a tour of her flat and I felt I was in Calcutta all over again."